The present invention relates to a method and a device for automatically identifying sound patterns accompanying physiological processes and activities of an animal in general, and uttered by an animal in distress in particular, especially of a pregnant animal going into labor, for storing, analyzing and processing data related to said identified sound patterns and deviations therefrom, and for providing an attendant with respective alert signals and data, according to pre-programmed requirements.
In general, certain physiological processes and activities of animals, e.g. cardiac, respiratory, digestive or ruminative processes and activities, are accompanied with distinctive sound patterns indicative thereof. Particularly, an animal or a group of animals while in distress, e.g. presence of a predator, fire, lack of water or food, and especially a pregnant animal going into labor, utter distinctive sound patterns indicative thereof. Automatically identifying said sound patterns and alerting an attendant to provide the required assistance, can be most advantageous.
For instance, it is widely known that many calves die during birth. In extreme cases the mother may also die during labor. It may be noted that on the average, 5%-10% of new born calves die during birth. Death of a calf, especially of livestock, is a significant money loss to the farmer, due to the relatively high price of calves. During 1997 in Israel alone, some 7,400 calves died during birth, 4,100 of which were males and 2,300 were females. A newborn calf is valued at NIS 1,100.- and the income generated by a cow during its life span is valued at NIS 25,000.-.
It is well established in the art, that the presence of an attendant assisting the mother during birth, reduces significantly the rate of mortality of the newborns. The exact time of birth cannot be predicted with any accuracy, hence, the presence of an attendant for assisting the animal during delivery cannot be ensured. Furthermore, the presence of an attendant during regular working hours, provides only a partial solution to the problem. But, as the attendant cannot be in the proximity of the pre-parturient animal during all hours of the day, in particular during the xe2x80x9cquiet hoursxe2x80x9d, i.e. late evening, night and the small hours, when most births occur, the beginning of parturition should be automatically identified and alert signal given to an attendant.
Further, distinctive sound patterns accompanying cardiac and respiratory activities and deviations therefrom, may be indicative of other distress conditions of an animal, such as heat stroke, diarrhea, swollen belly, etc. For instance, distinctive sound patterns accompanying disturbances in swallowing (dysphagia), in digestion (dyspepsia), in cardiac or respiratory activities, are indicative of a horse in distress. Also, dogs and cats while in distress, experience cardiac or respiratory changes accompanied by distinctive sound patterns. According to the present invention, all said sound patterns are identified and compared to pre-stored sound patterns, thereby alerting an attendant who may not be in proximity to an animal or a group of animals requiring urgent assistance. The same holds true for birds and fowl which utter distinctive sound patterns when in distress, such as rise in body temperature, lack of water, etc. Thus, all said distress situations should be automatically identified and alert signal given to an attendant.
Sound patterns of an animal, can be received by mounting an audio receiving device on an animal or under its skin or in proximity to an animal or a group of animals, whereby the device according to the present invention identifies sound patterns of a single animal or of a group of animals.
Furthermore, said identified distinctive sound patterns, and deviations therefrom, may be stored, analyzed and processed, thus provide valuable data of the state of an animal or a group of animals, according to pre-programmed requirements. By receiving, identifying, storing, analyzing and processing said sound patterns, an attendant is provided with data according to pre-programmed requirements, whereby he can learn about the physiological processes and activities and behavior of an animal or a group of animals. For example, in livestock, when said data shows deviation from normal digestive sound patterns, an attendant may learn about possible constipation or diarrhea in an animal. Further, when said data shows deviation from the normal of the rate of ruminative process, an attendant can learn about possible problems related to the food quality. Yet further, when said data shows above normal cardiac activity in conjunction with various other deviations from the normal of physiological activities in livestock, an attendant can discover the causes for said deviation of cardiac activity, such as rise in the surrounding temperatures or rise in body temperature indicative of a disease, etc.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, a combination of identified sound patterns related to an increase in cardiac and respiratory rate and identified distinctive sound patterns uttered by a cow going into labor, indicate an approaching delivery.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,685 to Carrier et al, is directed to a device for detecting the onset of parturition of a pregnant animal. The device is mounted on the animal and detects changes in physical properties which indicate that the animal is going into labor. It will be noted that this device might be activated by accident if, for example, the animal falls or passes under a low horizontal bar or wire.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,328 to Pollack, is directed to an animal monitoring telltale and information system which utilizes biophysical sensing device such as a temperature sensor, a blood pressure sensor, a blood flow sensor and the like. The system transmits the data received from the biophysical sensing device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,070 to Blunt, is directed to a warning device programmable to be sensitive to pre-selected sound frequencies. This device is designed for individuals which are unable to hear warning signals, such as hearing impaired and people working in an environment where warning sounds are hidden by ambient noise. The device detects sounds from devices such as a door bell, a telephone unit, a smoke detector, a security system and the like, compares the frequency of the detected sound with pre-stored frequencies and informs the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,780 to Hsieh, is directed to a baby cry recognizer which detects whether a received sound signal is within a range of pre-stored frequencies.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel device for automatically identifying sound patterns accompanying physiological processes and activities of an animal in general, and uttered by an animal in distress in particular, especially of a pregnant animal going into labor, for storing, analyzing and processing data related to said identified sound patterns and deviations therefrom, and for providing an attendant with respective alert signals and data according to pre-programmed requirements.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel method for operating the device of the invention.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel method for providing an attendant with data of said identified sound patterns, and deviations therefrom, according to pre-programmed requirements.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a novel method for providing an attendant with alert signals, once sound patterns of an animal in distress are identified.
In accordance with the present invention, there is thus provided a device for automatically identifying said sound patterns accompanying physiological processes and activities of an animal in general, and uttered by an animal in distress in particular, especially of a pregnant animal going into labor, for storing, analyzing and processing data related to said identified sound patterns, and providing an attendant with respective alert signals and data according to pre-programmed requirements. The device includes an audio receiving device, for receiving sound patterns, placed in proximity to an animal or a group of animals, thereby converting the received sound patterns into an audio signal, a controller, connected to the audio receiving device, a storage unit, containing pre-stored audio patterns, connected to the controller, and a communication interface, connected to the controller, for communicating with a remote communication unit located in proximity to an attendant.
The controller processes the audio signal and compares the processed audio signal with the animal pre-stored audio pattern, thereby producing a likelihood value, representing the degree of resemblance between the audio signal and the pre-stored audio pattern, and stores said likelihood value in the storage unit.
The controller provides a command to the communication interface, to inform the remote communication unit, when the likelihood value exceeds a pre-stored value.
The device can also include a user interface, connected to the controller, for receiving programming instructions from a user, thereby the controller can be pre-programmed to identify various kinds of animal sound patterns and to process, analyze and provide data according to pre-programmed requirements.
The device can further include an animal interface, connected to the controller, for maintaining an open communication line with the animal or group of animals, thereby listening to sounds and voices in proximity thereto and confirming the correctness of the alert signal.
According to another aspect of the invention, the device can also include a GPS unit, connected to the controller, for detecting the position of the device, thereby producing location data. Accordingly, the device provides the location data to the remote communication unit via the communication interface.
According to a further aspect of the invention, the communication interface generates a facsimile transmission and can also be connected to a printer.
According to another aspect of the invention, the communication interface consists of a wireless transceiver and the remote communication unit consists of a mobile transceiver.
The communication interface can transmit an audio message to the remote communication unit and the remote communication unit converts the audio message into sound. The communication interface can also transmit a data message to the remote communication unit and the remote communication unit displays the data message.
The device can further include securing means for securing the device to the animal, such as a collar, an ear securing device, under the skin implant housing, and the like.
The device can further include an analog to digital converter, connected between the audio receiving device and the controller, wherein the analog to digital converter converts the audio signal into digital format, for the controller to collect, analyze and process.
The device can also include an amplifier, connected after the audio receiving device, for amplifying the audio signal.
The device can also include an audio-visual monitoring system for viewing an animal or a group of animals in distress and providing an attendant with alert signals.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is thus provided a method for identifying said sound patterns accompanying physiological processes and activities of an animal in general, and uttered by an animal in distress in particular, especially of a pregnant animal going into labor, for storing, analyzing and processing data related to said identified sound patterns and deviations therefrom, and for providing an attendant with respective alert signals and data, according to pre-programmed requirements, including the steps of
receiving a sound signal,
converting the sound signal into an audio signal,
comparing the audio signal with animal pre-stored audio pattern,
determining the decree of resemblance between the audio signal and the pre-stored audio pattern, thereby producing a likelihood value,
storing the likelihood value,
initiating an alert procedure when the likelihood value exceeds a pre-stored threshold value, and
providing data according to pre-programmed requirements.
The following is a digital version of the method of the invention which includes the steps of:
receiving a sound signal,
converting the sound signal into an audio signal,
converting the audio signal into digital format, thereby producing a digital audio signal,
comparing the digital audio signal with animal pre-stored audio pattern,
determining the degree resemblance between the digital audio signal and the pre-stored audio pattern, thereby producing a likelihood value,
storing the likelihood value, and
initiating an alert procedure when the likelihood value exceeds a pre-stored threshold value, and
providing data according to pre-programmed requirements.
The method can further include steps such as:
amplifying the audio signal before the step of comparing,
filtering the audio signal after the step of receiving,
filtering the digital audio signal before the step of comparing,
enhancing portions of the digital audio signal before the step of comparing, and
detecting the location coordinates of the animal and transmitting the location coordinates to the remote communication unit, when the likelihood value exceeds a pre-stored threshold value.